Emmet Update

Emmet is doing really well with his training and has his next review with DHK over the Easter Holidays.  Jumping up is STILL his Achilles Heel, but we are working on it. He has completed advanced puppy training and has also had some 1:1 sessions to work on not seeing every other dog as a play object! Part of the DHK assessment is learning a trick, which we have already achieved, as Emmet now will push a button when given a cue. His assessment later this year will involve basic training, such as ‘sit’, ‘down’ and ‘stand’, recall and loose lead walking,  but also ‘wait’ and a ‘stay’ with me going out of sight – this is assessed in a busy unfamiliar setting, so will be a challenge, but he is certainly well on his way to managing it. There has been a lot of media about ‘School Dogs’ recently and having a dog in school is becoming a familiar process. There are still no regulations or official guidelines for bringing dogs to school, which is a concern for both the dogs and the school community. Emmet is most definitely in his teenage stage, which means he will occasionally ignore cues. This, along with jumping up, does not make him safe to work with children at the moment. Hence needing at least a year and a lot of training to prepare for that part. DHK are inundated with media attention at the moment as they are still one of the only organisations to have a training programme in place.  Emmet has his first cut and blow dry this week. A massive thank you to Jane Allum for making him look and feel so glam. See below for some pictures.

Cross Country News

Congratulations to Henry, who came 2nd place in the RAF Benson Cross Country Y6 event! Well done!

Swimming Gala News

Congratulations to our two Y5/6 swimming teams, who came first at the WPS gala earlier today. Both teams will now progress on to the SOXON finals in May.

Year 2 Forest School

Mrs Stanley took Year 2 Kingfisher and Puffin Class for Forest School today, where a lot of fun was had. The heart in the tree was a particular bonus find!

Thank you as always to our lovely family volunteers for their help and in particular for their flexibility in us changing days.

Crime Scene Investigation

Crime scene investigation:
Last week, the Year 5/6 children were lucky enough to have a visit from Science Oxford. We had to solve the mystery of Mrs Avery’s missing kitten; the only clue was that the thief had left a pile of white powder. Also, there were five suspicious people hanging around the room where the cat was last seen. The suspects are: 
•       Polly - who works in a sweet shop [citric acid]; 
•       Howard – who owns a mill [cornflour]; 
•       Anne -who works in a crisp factory [salt];
•       Nadella  - Who works at a vineyard [cream of tartare];
•       Raoul – from the Bake Off [bicarbonate of soda].
We had to do various tests on each of the powders to identify which powder matched the mystery powder left at the crime scene. The results of this would help to identify the prime suspect in the case. We did the following tests:
1.What does it feel and look like?
2. What happens when you add a few drops of vinegar?
3. What happens when you add water? Does it dissolve?
4. What colour does the indicator paper go?
5. Add a few drops of iodine solution; what happens?
These questions helped us to figure out that the salt was the substance left behind by Anne who worked at the crisp factory. She is our prime suspect in the case of the missing kitten!
By Eva in Year 6

Hampton Court Palace

The Year 5/6 children had a fantastic time exploring Hampton Court Palace this week. For most of them, it was their first time visiting a palace and they were amazed by its grandeur and deep history. Our two workshops included a guided tour and exciting activities involving Tudor toys and props.

Thames Water Investigation

The Year 5/6 children looked at how water is dispersed through pipes in a town or village. They attempted to set up their own water system using various apparatus, ensuring that all areas on a map were being supplied and adequate amount of water.

Memory Experiment

As part of our Science Week, last Monday Year 5/6 conducted a memory experiment with phycologist Mrs Lindholm- parent of a child in Foundation Stage. 
The class was split into two groups and were given twenty-five words to learn in two minutes. We then had another two minutes to write down as many as we could remember. 
The two groups were given the same twenty-five words - one set were random and the other set were in categories. The group that had the words organised into categories were able to remember a lot more words than the group that had the words in a random order.  This taught us that our brains like to organise things and that brains like unusual words like pineapple because it was three syllables. 
How can we use this information to help us improve our memory? When researching something e.g France, we should organise the facts into groups like culture, food and geography because that will help us to remember. Also, when fact finding, we should use subheadings to categorise information.   
Thank you Mrs Lindholm – we really enjoyed this session!
By Josey and Jaryd in Year 5/6.

Tamara Taylor visits Cholsey

Last Friday, Tamara Taylor visited Cholsey to talk about her England Rugby playing career and her work for the Wooden Spoon Charity helping disabled and disadvantaged children. 

Tamara is the second most capped England player and was a part of the World Cup winning squad in 2014. Next month, Tamara will be taking part in a rugby game played half way up Mount Everest to raise money for her chosen charity. Tamara's niece, Freya (Flamingo Class) is helping her aunt to achieve her target by decorating wooden spoons to sell later this term. 

Tamara is one of the most inspirational sporting visitors we have had at Cholsey and left the children with three strong messages:

1. Be resilient - don't let people tell you that you can't achieve your goals.

2. Persevere - when you get knocked down make sure that you get back up and learn from those mistakes

3. Challenge yourself - set targets and goals in different aspects of your life. 

We are very grateful to Tamara for giving up her time to visit us and wish her the best of luck for the challenge ahead!

Respiratory Unit

For Science week, The Respiratory Unit, from the JR, came in to visit the children . They talked about lung capacity and the children blew into the tubes to test theirs.They also learned about sputum!!! and bacteria and how the scientists test for bacteria. Using stethoscopes they also listened for heart beats and their breathing. Here are some of them having a go. All children from Years 1-6 took part.